Brian's Blog

April 2011 - Network Innovations

27
Apr

Does your phone system also provide Chat and Video Conferencing? How about cell phones? Ask me about our new solution from Zultys! Not only do you receive secure, corporate Instant Messaging (to cell phones as well), but desktop video conferencing with up to 4 parties, full cell phone client and integration, and VERY powerful rules to control how your calls are handled in different scenarios – WITH Outlook calendar integration! I would love to show you how Zultys could benefit your company.

What a crazy month! In mid-March, a spam “botnet” called Rustock was identified and taken offiline. Immediately, spam levels dropped by 30%, from a starting average of 168 billion messages per day, to 119 billion messages per day. We thought this was great news, but someone out there was very unhappy about this. Two weeks after Rustock was taken down, the amount of malware sent as an email attachment increased over 400%! Please be careful, and make sure you never open an attachment that is unknown or unexpected – these days you should still be wary even if you know the source. Some recent spam trend notes:

In the first quarter, The most popular spam topic was pharmacy ads, representing 28% of ALL emails sent.

Mass mailings of “parcel tracking information” appearing to come from DHL and UPS accounted for 30% of all spam messages

Hacked Facebook accounts lead to the creation of harmful Facebook applications and ultimately viruses

Protecting yourself againts these threats requires a multi-pronged approach: a hosted spam/virus filter solution, a firewall with “UTM” capabilities (a second spam/virus filter), local spam & spyware software on the desktop, and attentive, vigilant users. A single virus outbreak can cost more than all of those items combined! Let me know how we can help.

The last typewriter factory in the world closed its doors on Monday, 4/25. Convergence today is speeding up obsolecence for sure – cell phones will eventually replace point and shoot cameras, ipods and portable gaming devices. What’s next in the office world? A company like ours has very little need for a fax machine these days, but many industries still rely heavily on them. I’d love to hear your thoughts – send me an email at brian@netinn.com